Popular entertainer Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) yesterday offered a humble public apology for a gaffe he made on his variety show that has outraged the nation's Muslim community.
Wu caused a public outcry last month when he said that Muslims did not eat pork because the prophet Mohammed had once drunk pig's milk.
He apologized the following week on air, but his mea culpa was deemed "insincere" by Taiwan's Muslim community, which numbers between 50,000 and 60,000.
"Wu's comments were ignorant and they hurt the feelings of Muslims and insulted our religion," said Salahuding Chao-yen Ma (馬超彥), chairman of the Taipei Grand Mosque.
Yesterday, a solemn-faced Wu bowed deeply before the cameras, saying: "I gave my deepest apology to Muslim friends."
Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV), which airs Wu's show, also promised to run a formal apology in major newspapers.
"We extend our deepest apology to the Muslim community for the host's ignorance and lack of knowledge about the religion," said TTV acting program manager Wang Li-chen (王莉貞).
"We would from now on endeavor to promote understanding of Islam and other faiths," he said.
Muslims flooded TTV's Web site with complaints following Wu's comments, and some even protested outside the station on Tuesday.
"TTV can use this issue as an opportunity to educate the public and spread information about the correct concepts of Islam," Ma said.
Taiwan's diverse society has some 19 different major faiths, though Buddhism and Taoism are the pre-dominant ones, with 4 million to 5 million believers each.
There are about 600,000 Christians and nearly 300,000 Catholics in Taiwan.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS